Many combustion processes used in industry rely on combustion of fossil fuels such as natural gas, LPG, or liquids such as fuel oil. While incorporation of fuel from renewable sources, such as biomass, into industrial combustion processes may be a desirable-sounding goal, the practical drawbacks of such incorporation have been found to discourage adoption of combustion of biomass. Such practical drawbacks may include the inadequate BTU content or excessive water content of the biomass fuel, the difficulty of feeding solid biomass into a furnace, and the contamination of the process by solid residues produced by combustion of biomass.
The present invention overcomes these difficulties and presents positive operational possibilities in the design and operation of industrial combustion processes.